CHAPTER XVII
FOURTH HYMN AND THE BISHOP
The President of the Republic, as a new broom, had been sweeping perhaps a little too clean for the common liking, so there was a ‘rebellion.’ It was not a very large one. But it meant, of course, banditry, robbery, and cowed villages.
Ramón was determined to keep free from the taint of politics. But already the Church, and with the Church the Knights of Cortés and a certain ‘black’ faction, was preparing against him. The priests began to denounce him from the pulpits—but not very loudly—as an ambitious Anti-Christ. With Cipriano beside him, however, and with Cipriano the army of the west, he had not much to fear.
But it was possible Cipriano would have to march away in defence of the Government.
‘Above all things,’ said Ramón, ‘I don’t want to
